Grave New World is the favourite album of many a Strawbs fan, a perfect mix of the band's folk-based heritage with Dave Cousins' growing interest in the rock world. A loosely conceptual album, it contains many of the Strawbs' best known songs: "New World", "Benedictus" and "Heavy Disguise", all of which were released as singles round the world. It was also Strawbs' biggest selling album in the UK (though not the highest chart position they ever achieved).
Dave Cousins (vcls, ac/el gtrs, dulcimer, recorder)
Tony Hooper (vcls, ac gtrs, autoharp, tamb)
Richard Hudson (drms, sitar, tablas, vcls)
John Ford (bs, vcls, ac gtr)
Blue Weaver (org, pno, Mell, harm, clavioline)
Vinyl album: AMLH 68078 (A&M, UK, Feb 1972) - DELETED. Double gatefold with lavish booklet, both designed by Paper Tiger - arguably (IMHO) one of the best packaged albums ever! Inner spread is huge depiction of the wanderer in silver on background of rainbow colours. Front cover features William Blake painting "Glad Day" and classic logo, the other faces of the "triptych" feature quotations from "Hymn of Praise to Ra" and The Buddha. The 16 page booklet is BEAUTIFULLY produced in sepia print on cream paper throughout. Each track has its own lyric page with intricate engraved illustrations and page decorations/borders and the inside back page photos of each of the band members. Initially issued with brown A&M label, likely to have been re-issued at later date with silver label.
Vinyl album: SP 4344 (A&M, US, 1972) (US version was a simpler single gatefold affair, less ornate ### details to be added. ###).
CD: D32Y3578 (A&M Japan/Canyon Records, 1987) - DELETED. Outer sleeve matches the US issue. Two inserts - a biog in Japanese with the lyrics in English, re-typeset and a second which reproduces the lyrics as set out in the vinyl album.
CD: SRMC 0075 (Si-Wan, 1997). Inner EXACTLY matches the original UK double gatefold sleeve in miniature. Back face of jewel case resembles US version, with decorated border and track listing. The main treat is that they include the booklet - 20 pages long - 16 of which reproduce in facsimile the original booklet in its entirety (apart from the A&M address between two cherubs on the back page; only the cherubs remain). Additional items are: the front cover of the 1972 tour programme (on the front inner, which was blank in the original), a 3-page biog in Korean and, a selection of photos from the same period as those included in the original. Very nicely done indeed.
CD: 540 934-2 (A&M, 1998, REMASTERED WITH 2 BONUS TRACKS) Covers booklet match front cover and "Ra" quote, inner spread reproduces the wanderer. No lyrics, but six pages of new sleeve notes by Dave Cousins and John Tobler.
Produced by David Cousins, Richard Hudson, John Ford, Blue Weaver and Tony Hooper
Special thanks are due to :
Tom Allom For creative engineering
Martin Levan Assistant engineer with many good ideas
Bob Kirby for dotting perfect quavers
Sam Artis for musicians 'par excellence'
Gus Dudgeon for originally producing 'Ah me, ah my'
Frank Boulter for always getting us home safely
Dickie Bell for angle taping, equipment and tea
Tony Visconti who will surely be blessed for producing 'Benendictus', and for his musical vibrations, and hard work in the past.
And also Mike Dolan, Jim Dawson, Karl Emil Knudsen
Recorded mainly at Morgan Studios in November 1971, but also at Island Studios (engineer: Frank Owen) and Lansdowne Studios (engineer: John Mackswith)
Sleeve design
Sleeve The front cover 'Glad Day' William Blake (British Museum)
Inner sleeve illustrations/booklet design: Paper Tiger
Printed and made by MacNeill Press Ltd. London SE 1
Other information
A & M Records and tapes address is listed as 1/2 George Street London
The disc is contained in a 3 flap folding sleeve which carries the following texts:
"'AS A MAN OF DISCERNMENT STANDING ON A ROCKY EMINENCE, BEHOLDETH THOSE WHO ARE BELOW AND IN DISTRESS so doth the sage, who by his wakefulness hath put to flight his ignorance, look down upon suffering mankind from the Heights of Wisdom which he hath attained' - The Buddha"
"'THOU HAST HEARD WITH THINE EARS AND THOU HAST SEEN WITH THINE EYES. Millions of years have gone over the world; I cannot tell the number of them, through which thou hast passed. Thy heart hath decreed a day of happiness in thy name. Thou dost pass over and travellest through untold spaces of millions and hundreds of thousands of years; thou settest out in peace, and thou steerest thy way across the watery abyss to the place which thou lovest; this thou doest in one little moment of time, and thou dost sink down and makest an end of the hours' – Extract from 'A hymn of praise to Ra when he riseth in the Eastern part of Heaven.'"
UK Chart: 11
US Chart: ##
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